We met Dr. Fang-Pey Chen on the interview day at the Taipei Veterans General Hospital (TVGH) Center for Traditional Medicine. Dr. Chen served as the director at the TVGH Center for Traditional Medicine for a quarter of a century, and she is now the first Chair of the School of Chinese Medicine at the National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU), just established in 2024. Dr. Chen personally led us to visit the TVGH’s Chinese medicine pharmacy. The dispensing indicators beneath the drug bottles lighted up one after one as if the glittering development of “New Chinese Medicine” had been pointed out.
Dr. Chen reminded us that the establishment of the School of Chinese Medicine originated thirty years ago. Ministry of Education intended to invite the National Yang-Ming University [1] to establish the School of Chinese Medicine; however, considering the faculties were insufficient, the only Institute of Traditional Medicine in Taiwan specializing in traditional medicine education and research was thus founded in 1991. NYCU has cultivated matured faculties over thirty years, including professors, associate professors, assistant professors, and researchers at the National Research Institute of Chinese Medicine, and collaborated with TVGH in education and research for a long time to integrate resources from the university and hospital. After NYCU was created in 2021 through the merger of two universities, it could further interdisciplinarily combine the fields to nurture Chinese medicine professionals who can meet the needs of the hospitals’ clinical and scientific research and biotechnology industries. Therefore, establishing the first School of Chinese Medicine at the national university in Taiwan can be said to be a natural progression.
What is “New Chinese Medicine”?
Dr. Chen believes contemporary Chinese medicine is at the intersection of history and the present. It must be underpinned by the theory of Yin-Yang and the Five Elements, the meridian system in traditional Chinese medicine, and the understanding of the impact of Chinese medicine’s history and humanity on society. “As shooting from a bow, to accurately shoot the target, one must fully bow the bow backward.” It inherits the broad and profound history and tradition of Chinese medicine for knowing the how and why. Therefore, Dr. Chen considers the key capabilities of “New Chinese Medicine Doctors” including familiarizing the Yin-Yang coordinating method in Chinese medicine, prioritizing patients, and being capable of humanistic concern and good teamwork; furthermore, moving forward in the scientific, modernized, evidence-based, and industrialized direction makes them inherit the legacy and flourish the Chinese medicine. These are the strengths of the School of Chinese Medicine at NYCU— interdisciplinary, combining fields such as Biotechnology, Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Information and Technology, Technology Management, Community, and Humanistic Medicine to nurture “New Chinese Medicine” talents who can meet the needs of the hospitals’ clinical and scientific research and biotechnology industries.
For the planning of credits, in addition to nourishing the profession in Chinese and Western medicine, the School of Chinese Medicine at NYCU develops four main discipline clusters, including “Chinese Medicine Long Term Care and Family Medicine,” “Chinese Medicine Policy and International Outlook,” “Chinese Medicine Doctors and Scientists,” and “Chinese Medicine Doctors and Engineers.” These discipline clusters not only provide solid medical training but also integrate semiconductors and information engineering technology to underpin and nourish Chinese medicine doctors equipped with scientific literacy who will undergo drug research and development, such as animal experiments, etc. Meanwhile, through the coordination of big data and artificial intelligence, students can also participate in instrument development, facilitating precise diagnosis in preventative treatment in the future. In addition, as the medical needs of the aging society grow, graduate students have the opportunity to work and conduct research in medical centers, community hospitals, etc., and provide at-home services such as home healthcare service.
Dr. Chen points out that 80 percent of students majoring in Chinese and Western Medicine at the School of Chinese Medicine in Taiwan will change to work in Western medicine after graduation, and nearly 90 percent of nationwide Chinese medicine doctors serve at primary clinics. In the long term, this is unfavorable to the development of Chinese medicine. Therefore, more Chinese medicine professionals are needed to participate in developing Chinese medicine drug policy to promote the advancement of Chinese medicine education and scientific research and the balanced development of Chinese and Western Medicine.
Is Chinese Medicine science?
For the query about “Is Chinese Medicine science?” Dr. Chen suggests thinking, “What is the nature of science?” in advance. Most people believe that science starts with mathematics, and the nature of mathematics is “symmetry.” Mathematics centers on zero, with plus or minus and XY axes. The theory of Yin-Yang and Five Elements in Chinese medicine embodies the concept of symmetry. Therefore, the answer to whether Chinese Medicine is science is self-evident. Besides, as early as the 19th century, Europe had already called “針灸” (zhenjiu) as “acupuncture”. Till the 21st century, 20 thousand doctors were capable of acupuncture among 100 thousand doctors in Germany and started to conduct many related research. The more research on acupuncture in Western medicine, the more conversation, understanding, and cooperation between Chinese and Western medicine.
Dr. Chen uses one of the Chinese medicine diagnoses, “to observe, to listen to, to ask, and to feel the pulse,” as an example. In the past, Chinese medicine doctors mainly relied on their experiences to diagnose; however, with the combination of technology, they are expected to adopt the Pulse Diagnosis Instrument with accumulated clinical data collected by big data to provide clinical doctors with preliminary diagnoses in the future. In addition, Dr. Chen references the old saying, “The supreme doctor cures the illness that is still obscure; the good doctor cures the illness that is about to break out; the inferior doctor cures the fully manifested illness” to explain some diseases are hard to be detected in the early phases. The Chinese medicine diagnoses— to observe, to listen to, to ask, and to feel the pulse— can provide disease prediction and suggestions for daily healthcare. It can not only be part of prophylaxis but also assist in the need for long-term care.
Students who study in the first session of the School of Chinese Medicine at NYCU will begin their semester in September 2024. In addition to the faculties cultivated by the Institute of Traditional Medicine, the School has actively collaborated with educational and research institutes in Taiwan and abroad, including the employment of Chair Yi-Chang Su at National Research Institute of Chinese Medicine as the consultant and the educational resources communication with the College of Traditional Korean Medicine at Kyung Hee University, the College of Traditional Korean Medicine at Pusan National University in Korea, the Department of Traditional Medicine of School of Medicine at Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City at Vietnam, the Department of Chinese Medicine at Hong Kong University, and Texas Health and Science University in the U.S. 30 students who study in the first session will receive complete Chinese and Western medicine training in the next seven years and learn expertise in fields of Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence, learning traditional Chinese medicine as the basis and science technology as the supplement to become the pillars that work in the hospital system and Chinese medicine research institutes and integrate the knowledge of Chinese and Western medicine in the 21st century.
[1] In 2021, National Yang Ming University was merged with National Chiao Tung University to become National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University.
Interview | Hui-Fang Cheng
Editing | Hsiu-Cheng Faina Chang
Photography | Hao-Yun Peng and Zong-Han Lyu / ZDunemployed studio